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With less than 1,000 votes separating the candidates for attorney general, Virginia's most populous county is trying to find out why an unusually low number of absentee ballots were cast in Tuesday's election.

The Fairfax County Electoral Board was canvassing absentee ballots on Friday. The board's secretary, Brian W. Schoeneman, says the canvass is being conducted in the county's 8th District.

The unofficial count of absentee ballots tallied in that district was 5,293, nearly 2,000 less than the number of absentees that were expected.

Schoeneman says the vote was clearly in error, and the board is attempting to find out why.

The vote could be important in the razor-thin race for attorney general, in which Republican Mark Obenshain leads by less than 800 votes over Democrat Mark Herring.